The right to have a door always open

When we see on the news the images of people fleeing and trying to reach safe places, I like to think that the vast majority of viewers have a feeling of empathy.

However, until it happens to one, it is difficult, if not impossible, to really imagine what it means to have to leave your home because of the war, because you profess a certain religion, political opinions, belong to certain social or ethnic groups, because of your sexual preferences or gender identity.

Leaving home is often a journey full of fear, uncertainty, and hardship.

With increasing frequency, we must add the not always legal barriers that many States put up so that those who need it can access the right to asylum and refuge that we all have in safe and legal conditions.

You too have it.

With very good criteria based on basic human rights standards and simple humanity, we all have the right to have a door always open for cases in which our lives or our security are in danger and we can only find protection outside the borders of our territory. .

This protection mechanism has worked and is working in an exemplary manner in the territory of the European Union with those who are leaving Ukraine because of the war.

For the first time, the Temporary Protection Directive has been applied, a measure that was created after the war in Yugoslavia for cases of “mass or imminent influx” of refugees.

The double standards of the European reception system do not leave in a good place the human rights values ​​on which coexistence on the continent is based

The Directive allows large groups of the population to have open borders and automatically obtain protection that can be extended for up to three years.

All this without the need to go through the physical and bureaucratic entry barriers of individual asylum applications, and granting access to multiple rights such as housing, education, health, social assistance and family reunification.

In our country this protection has been extended not only to citizens of Ukraine, but to those of other nationalities who were in this country with permanent or temporary residence titles.

Also, and with good judgment, this temporary protection has been applied to the Ukrainian population that already lived in our territory before the Russian invasion,

This Directive, however, was not applied in the war in Syria, for those fleeing Afghanistan, for those in Venezuela, or for those fleeing the various active conflicts that are currently taking place throughout the world.

This double standard does not leave the human rights values ​​on which European coexistence is based in a good place.

Neither is the reaction of societies in Europe, which have unanimously faced the obligation to welcome refugees from Ukraine.

This does not always happen with citizens of other countries who also avoid conflicts;

perhaps due to ignorance of the realities that these people are leaving behind in the best of cases, and due to racism, xenophobia or Islamophobia on the dark side of the scale.

We should all reflect on this: government institutions and citizenship.

The challenges of welcoming and integrating refugee populations are enormous in an increasingly troubled world, but we must do the impossible to keep our doors open and to be able to continue seeing ourselves as human beings who believe in justice, equity and why not compassion.

Alberto Casado

is director of Incidencia de Ayuda en Acción.

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